The Congress in Goa has to perform or perish, newly appointed state president Luizinho Faleiro said on Tuesday.

Faleiro was speaking at a function in Panaji organised to mark his formal takeover of the state unit.

"Let me be frank. The results of the assembly elections and the Lok Sabha election were shockingly bad… the morale of our workers is at its lowest ebb…," Faleiro said.

"Our mission, bluntly, is to 'perform or perish'," Faleiro said, conceding that the party was going through "a critical stage".

Faleiro, an All India Congress Committee general secretary and permanent invitee to the Congress Working Committee, took over as new state president from John Fernandes earlier this month.

The Congress in the state won only nine seats in the 2012 state assembly elections.